


Last Words

by ALynnL07



Series: The New Earth Project [1]
Category: Red Dwarf (UK TV)
Genre: Drama, Featuring: My Space Corps Headcanon, Finale Concept Fic, Gen, Gen Fic, Inventing Sci-Fi Concepts for Fun and Profit, Last Word Confessions, Near-Death Experience, Post-Series 12 AU, References to M Corp, Sci-Fi Adventure Fic, Spaceship Crash, The Boys from the Dwarf save the Universe, Written Pre-Promised Land
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24047512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALynnL07/pseuds/ALynnL07
Summary: Lister and his crew were going about their daily lives until the Red Dwarf experienced tremors.  The crew soon finds out the truth behind this shake-up: there is a hole in space and time.  Lister must come up with a plan to repair this catastrophic damage - and be prepared for any consequences that might come next.  Set after Series XII, Part 1 of a Red Dwarf Finale Project.
Series: The New Earth Project [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734706
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Unraveling

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again, Red Dwarf readers. I'm excited to bring you Part 1 of a planned trilogy I have dubbed the New Earth Project. I had this wild idea in mind since August of last year, and now I'm finally making it happen! Something about Red Dwarf's universe inspires me in such a meaningful way. I can tell you all that I know exactly where this story is going and I'm thrilled to take you all on the journey with me, and the Boys from the Dwarf.
> 
> I dedicate this fanfic to...  
> Gemothy, who was once again a very patient, very understanding first-time reader who helped me debug my thought process.
> 
> Ginny, who has been my compatriot in writing since November and always lends a listening ear.
> 
> Hardlightlibrarian, another friend, fellow Dwarfer, and reader of my snippets.
> 
> thewronglong, who first listened to me ramble about my concept for this fic and helped me begin the process of brainstorming it. I have a feeling you'll be proud of how far it's come and how much this little idea has blossomed and become its own.
> 
> arrowsshootyouforwards, who was particularly helpful in getting me past my numerous writing slumps and believing in my abilities.
> 
> And most of all, I thank you, reader for taking your time to read my fic and spend some time in my world.
> 
> With that out of the way, let us continue onward to where our story begins.

Out in the depths of space, millions of lightyears away from their home planet Earth, a lone Space Corps battleship and an M Corp armored spaceship were in a deadlock. This stalemate between them had lasted for countless years now. They had traveled across time, space and dimensions, evenly matched as they fought on. 

The ships were heavily damaged, both crews were exhausted, and their ammunition was nearly all the way spent. But neither side was willing to wave the white flag. There were principles to be fought for. 

M Corp was only trying to bring order to a chaotic universe that saw far too much rebellion and unrest. With their careful, meticulous software, the company would have everybody in their place. The people would be safe and cared for. M Corp was the only company who knew what was best. They would end all conflict and bring universal peace.

But the Space Corps knew better than to believe such hogwash. The only thing that M Corp cared about was control. Anyone or anything outside of the company couldn’t be seen once their so-called upgrades were run on the unlucky test pilots’ ships. Any person, place or thing without M Corp’s logo would be forgotten as if they never existed at all. Earth had fallen to them, but the Corps refused to go down without a fight. They’d sparked the fires of rebellion in every colony from Ganymede to Titan. 

And now their struggle had come down to the last two ships.

On board the Space Corps battleship, the commanding officer, Fleet Admiral Charles H. Breckinridge watched the battle unfold before his eyes. He stared out the window forlornly with his hands folded behind his back. Even as his ship reeled from his enemy’s onslaught, Breckinridge held his ground. He felt like he had to.

There wasn’t enough fuel to retreat. He knew what would happen if they were captured. Breckinridge and his loyal crew would either be tortured, or be forced to accept their place among M Corp’s brainwashed slaves. So the only other option was to die in battle. It would be an honorable end, and Breckinridge would make sure he took those M Corp devils down with him. 

Grabbing the nearest microphone, the Fleet Admiral switched it on, to address everyone on his ship one last time.

“Everyone, this is Fleet Admiral Breckinridge speaking. I wanted to say that it has been a great privilege to fight alongside you fine men, women and droids of the Corps. We have fought our hardest to preserve the freedom of all sentient life,” the officer said. “But now, we must use our greatest weapon to eradicate the M Corp menace once and for all. Its recoil will destroy us, but this fight has never been about ourselves. This is for the future of all those who will live on after us. We will begin preparations to fire the Megiddo Cannon. If any of you wish to speak any last words into the black box, now should be the time. This is your commanding officer, signing off for the last time.”

As he finished his speech, Breckinridge switched off the microphone. A somber atmosphere overtook the Space Corps ship, as the crew members thought long and hard about what the final message truly meant. They had all fought valiantly, but now the future was out of their hands. But maybe hope wasn’t lost. The black box would survive, even if they would not. Perhaps someone would find it, and their final words would be heard. 

The crew on the Space Corps vessel turned keys, pressed buttons and gave the voice commands to activate the Megiddo Cannon. The large, silver barrel came out of the bottom of the ship, and twelve of its cylinders flared up when it was ready. All the lights went off, and only a single computer remained to direct power into the cannon.

And as they charged their cannon, the M Corp vessel began to charge their own - the very same size, with the same amount of cylinders, and the same amount of power.

At once, both Fleet Admiral Breckinridge and M Corp’s mainframe computer gave the order to fire.

Both blasts collided into each other. The blowback from the cannons swept across the M Corp and Space Corps ships, wiping them out in a wave of white particles. A great explosion went off, sending shockwaves throughout deep space. And in the place where a great battle once raged on, there was suddenly no trace of any ships, anywhere, except for one tiny black box. 

And at the site of the great explosion, there was a single gray static patch in the fabric of space and time. This part of space had been ripped asunder. The hole seemed small at first, only about the size of an average dinner plate. A nearby asteroid was pulled into the gray hole, and it disintegrated completely. And as the asteroid was pulled in, the hole began to grow, and swallow anything else that came close.

Many years later, the _JMC_ Mining ship, _Red Dwarf_ was about to get much closer to the hole in space and time. For now, it was at a safe distance. And for now, its crew was completely unaware of the danger that lay just a few thousand kilometers ahead of them.

There were very few things the _Red Dwarf_ crew was aware of at the moment. They were at the table nose-deep in another game of poker. It was their game of choice when there was nothing else exciting going on. It had been a good day for them so far. No strange life forms had tried to stow away into the cargo decks. There was an absence of rogue simulants, and no sign of any droids, whether they were hostile or benign. Shape shifting polymorphs must have grown tired of them, as they had yet to show themselves recently.

So it was all a matter of just passing the time until the crew found another planet that had a breathable atmosphere. Going on vacation in a spacesuit always took the fun out of things. It was like going swimming in one’s regular clothing. Maybe it worked, but it was dreadfully uncomfortable.

Among the four members of _Red Dwarf’s_ crew, David Lister prided himself in having the best poker face. He kept his expression neutral and visibly unreadable as he drew another card and put it in with the rest of his hand. He was sure that this was going to be the winning hand, but he couldn’t give himself away. He wanted the prize more than anything. The stakes for this poker game were simple: the winner chose which taped TV series they got to watch in _Red Dwarf’s_ theater. And he was not about to let Rimmer win and put them through another watch of _Know your Pole: BBC Io's History of Telegraph Poles_.

“Alright, who’s ready to show their hand?” Lister asked the others, raising his eyebrows with interest.

“I’m ready!” exclaimed the Cat, grinning. “I think I’ve got you guys beat this time!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. We all know who the champion is around here,” said Rimmer smugly, pointing to himself.

“I wouldn’t leave me out of the winner’s circle just yet, sirs,” said Kryten confidently. “Don’t forget, I’ve practically _perfected_ my lying and poker face modes to an art form. I believe I will be victorious.”

“Ha, that’s what you think, Krytes!” Lister taunted. “You said that last month and the next thing you know, you were in the kitchen peeling spuds!”

“I still fail to see how that was a punishment, sir.” Kryten replied.

“Enough dilly-dallying, gentlemen,” said Rimmer. “The truth will be in the cards today.”

Rimmer laid his cards out on the table first. He counted them with a certain amount of arrogance. He was sure he had the match in the bag. He had a straight, which had won him a few matches before. 

Upon seeing his hand, the Cat rolled his eyes, and folded. Kryten wore a smirk as he laid his cards down next. He’d managed to beat Rimmer’s hand, laying down a flush in spades. Rimmer stamped his foot in frustration. He wasn’t sure what was worse! Did he want to sit through _Androids_ or _Zero Gravity Football Seasons XV - XIX_? Either choice sounded awful to him.

When everyone else had laid down their hands, Lister’s face hadn’t moved. He was just too good at this game, even if he was normally terrible about making faces and poking fun of his fellow crew members’ various habits. He was about to blow their minds with this hand. Lister couldn’t wait to see the look on the others’ faces when he revealed his hand.But just as he was about to strike them speechless with a royal flush, a large tremor rocked the ship. It shook the entire dining room, throwing everything this way and that. 

The crew’s cards ended up sliding off the table, and Lister’s royal flush went tumbling out of his hands. He fell out of his chair, but felt Kryten grab a hold of him. The Cat was practically digging his claw-like fingernails into the table, and he was baring his teeth nervously. Rimmer clung to the back of his chair, and was thanking Io that the chairs and the table were all firmly bolted down into the ship’s floor.

“Man, there goes my winning hand!” Lister complained, looking downwards at the cards.

Just overhead, Lister and the others could hear Holly’s monotone voice sounding the alarm.

“Emergency, there’s an emergency going on. It’s still going on. Emergency…” Holly said, trailing off. “All personnel please report to the drive room.”

“Why does he need us to report to the drive room?!” asked Rimmer throwing up a hand in frustration. “We can hear him just fine right here!”

“I should remind you, sir, that our drive room is equipped with chairs that have seatbelts, as is Space Corps regulation,” said Kryten, holding up a pointer finger as he went into Lecture Mode. “It is always the safest place to be in case of any emergency.”

“It was a rhetorical question, Kryten!” Rimmer snapped. “I don’t need a safety lecture!”

“There’s an old cat saying that applies here,” said the Cat, tilting his head upwards as he tried to recall it. “When the ground starts moving, you get the hell out of there!”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” said Lister. “Let’s clear outta here, guys.”

They got out of their chairs all at the same time. Lister and the Cat were the first to hold on to Kryten, who still managed to be sturdy despite the shaky ground at his feet. Rimmer trailed behind them at first, telling himself that he would manage to walk on his own without much trouble. But his light bee’s internal coding let his feet know that the ground _was_ unstable, and so was the ship. He nearly stumbled, but caught Kryten’s back when he was about halfway down. Rimmer reluctantly rested both hands on the android’s back, holding steady, as the four of them pushed their way down hallways and passages.

When they reached the drive room, the tremors were even worse. There was a rumble that could be heard throughout the whole ship. Kryten made sure to bring Lister, the Cat and Rimmer to their chairs, securely buckling their seat belts. After he took his seat, Holly’s face appeared on the screen before all of them.

“Hol, can you tell us what’s going on?” asked Lister.

“It’s an emergency, Dave,” Holly replied.

“We know damn well it’s an emergency, but what _type_?” asked Rimmer, folding his arms.

“From what I can see, it’s the type where a mining ship the size of a city is being shaken about,” answered Holly. “I thought it was a bit substantial.”

“Holly, did you pick up anything unusual on your scans?” Kryten asked the computer patiently. “Perhaps there is another ship, or some kind of device that is causing an adverse reaction with _Red Dwarf’s_ primary systems.”

“I picked up no other ships, devices or debris,” said Holly. “However, I did pick up the signal from a black box just five kilometers north of us. It’s from the Space Corps.”

“A Space Corps ship was out here in the middle of nowhere?” Lister questioned.

“To put it more precisely, Lister, a Space Corps ship was _destroyed_ out here in the middle of nowhere,” Rimmer commented. “And unless we want to end up the same way, we should be forming an exit strategy.”

“For once I have to agree with Goalpost Head,” said the Cat nervously. “Being blown up is _not_ a good look for me.”

“Guys, just _think_ for a minute!” Lister told them. “Whoever left that could be warning us about something. What if they died trying to escape? Their last words could save us!”

“How would we even go about retrieving it?” Rimmer asked. “We can’t take off in _Starbug_. We’d have less footing than a drunken river dancer! We’d never fly!”

“I can handle that bit, Arnold,” said Holly. “I’ll just sweep it into the cargo deck. From there you’ll have to take it to our black box recording room, so we can have a look.”

“Do what you’ve gotta do, Hol,” said Lister. “We’ll meet you halfway.”

Holly concentrated all his circuitry to navigate the _Red Dwarf_ in a downward angle. He urged the large mining ship forward, careful not to speed too far ahead. Holly couldn’t risk running into whatever left the black box behind. He was managing to do this with a straight face. It never occurred to Holly to have any other face. He wasn’t programmed to feel emotions like fear, anxiety or unease. But he was wired to navigate with as much caution as possible.

When he was practically on top of the black box, he opened the cargo bay just enough to scoop it inside. Mere seconds later, he sealed it back up, without losing a single storage crate.

“The Space Corps black box is secured,” said Holly.

“We’ll be right there,” said Lister. He unfastened his safety belt, and the others followed.

After their brief excursion to the cargo bay, and another lift ride to _Red Dwarf’s_ black box recording room, Lister hooked up their newly found cargo to a projection screen. A series of words and numbers scrolled across the screen. They were written in white text on a black background. The information was a lot to take in, even with four minds between them, or rather, five if they also counted Holly.

“I don’t believe it,” said Lister in awe. “The takeoff point was from Earth in the 22nd Century.”

“So, what’s that mean?” asked the Cat.

“Before it was destroyed, this ship was in deep space almost as long as we were,” Rimmer said thoughtfully.

“There must be thousands of hours of footage, sir. I doubt we have much time to see everything from the beginning,” Kryten stated.

“The most important footage is from the final hour, Kryten,” said Rimmer. “Then we’ll find out what, or who wiped them out.”

“Holly, skip to the last hour,” Lister ordered him.

“Skipping ahead, Dave,” Holly answered.

Grainy, black and white images sped ahead at a rapid pace, only stopping when they were at the right place. When they slowed down, Lister and the others could make out a few distinct shapes. There were consoles, each dotted with lights and buttons quite similar to their own cockpits. Within the video the lights were on, but they looked as if they were flickering, and they would black out at any moment. There were figures in the footage. Upon closer look, they turned out to be men, women and droids, all outfitted in the Space Corps’ black and gray uniforms.

They were all bowing their heads, as if they had entered into some sort of group prayer. Only one figure stood in the middle. Upon seeing them, Rimmer’s eyes lit up in recognition.

“Wait, I know that is!” Rimmer exclaimed, pointing to the figure in the middle. “That’s their commanding officer, Fleet Admiral Charles H. Breckinridge!”

“What makes him so special?” asked the Cat, glancing towards Rimmer.

“He’s probably another dictator,” Lister remarked, shrugging.

“He happens to be the greatest military strategist in the entire Space Corps, dubbed the George S. Patton of the Stars,” Rimmer answered sharply. “He was brilliant! He’s written dozens of books. And now we’re about to see one of his campaigns in action!” 

“I should remind you that this is the ship’s final hour, sir,” Kryten said gloomily. “More than likely, the fleet admiral is no longer with us.”

“What are you saying to me, Kryten?” Rimmer asked him. His proud smile had quickly melted into a frown.

“As brilliant as he once was, it’s possible that one of the most decorated officers in the Corps could have been defeated, sir,” Kryten answered him.

“No, that can’t be. I don’t know anyone who could have bested him,” Rimmer replied. His words came out slowly as the implications hit him.

“Listen, I think he’s speaking to his crew!” said Lister, putting a hand to his lips to hush the others.

At first, the sound bites were muffled. It was hard to tell what the fleet admiral was saying, but then his words became clearer as the recording went on. They came in fuzzy chunks full of static, but it wasn’t hard to decipher what was happening. They were preparing for a last stand.

_“...now we must use our greatest weapon to eradicate the M Corp menace once and for all…”_

“Did he just say M Corp?” Lister asked, moving his ear closer to speaker.

“They were those white-coated freaks that made you forget about us!” the Cat exclaimed.

“The Space Corps was fighting a battle against M Corp?” Rimmer said, pausing to think. “I thought M Corp owned everything back in the old solar system.”

“If you recall, sir, M Corp did take control of all the Earth’s utilities, and then the planet itself,” Kryten reminded him. “However, the Space Corps must have rebelled. They refused to allow M Corp to take the other colonies without a fight.”

"It would've meant war," said Rimmer. "But that doesn't seem right. Why would the fleet admiral fight a war with just one ship? Where's the rest of his fleet? He should be giving them orders!"

"It's not hard to figure out, man," said Lister, looking to Rimmer with a solemn expression. "They were the only ones left."

Rimmer backed away from the screen against his chair, shaking his head in disbelief.

"This can't be real. I don't want it to be!" Rimmer exclaimed, distraught. "If this is truly the last ship, and it was destroyed in battle, it means the Space Corps is no more. Everything I ever stood for, every way I've lived my life as a human and a hologram is gone now."

Lister undid his seatbelt and stepped close to Rimmer. He placed a hand on his companion’s shoulder, rubbing it in a gesture of consolation.

"The Corps isn't completely gone, Rimmer," Lister said softly. He stopped his hand and held it in place. "Their battleships and high fliers might be history now, but we're still here, and so is the Dwarf. No matter which way you slice it, we're their legacy now."

"I suppose we are still here, but for how long?" Rimmer wondered. His eyes widened as panic overtook him. "If the Space Corps really lost, that means M Corp was victorious. They can't be pleased with us giving them the slip before. They're coming for us! That's why we're trembling, isn't it?"

"What's the problem, Goalpost Head? If they want to come, just let 'em," said the Cat. "We'll just charge up the bazookoids and let 'em eat laser!” he added, acting like he was holding an invisible weapon, and firing it off.

"We're talking about computerized corporate killing machines, Cat, not simple-minded backwards GELFs," Rimmer replied sharply. "They're probably _powered_ by bazookoid fire for all we know!"

"We don't know that they’ve won for sure," said Lister calmly. "We haven't seen the end yet."

"Mister Lister is right, sir. There is roughly twenty minutes left," Kryten stated, trying his best to match Lister’s tone. "I believe we should finish watching it, out of respect to the late crew, if nothing else."

Rimmer went quiet, unable to argue and the rest of the footage rolled on. It was almost too much to see the men, women and droids saying their last farewells while the Megiddo Cannon began its countdown. When it reached zero, the cannon fired, clearly hitting its target. But the recoil force and a blast from the M Corp mothership struck at once, washing the screen out in a coat of white.

The glow of the explosion was lit for a few minutes and gradually faded. All that was left was emptiness. Pitch blackness surrounded the black box on all sides. There was no more M Corp mothership. There was nothing as far as the eye could see.

As the black box spun in a circle, a thin, gray patch could be seen in the otherwise dark sea of space. Upon seeing it, Lister pressed the pause button on the video feed.

"Hang on a minute. What's this?" asked Lister, pointing towards it on the screen.

"How curious! It almost looks like a scar," said Kryten, looking on with him.

"It looks like a tear in some really cheap fabric," the Cat commented.

"It's near the site of the explosion," said Rimmer as he glanced at it. "It must have something to do with the cannon fire."

Before Lister and the others could speculate more, the frozen image of the strange, gray spot disappeared. In its place, Holly's face faded into focus.

"Alright, dudes, I think I've figured it out," said Holly. "That little gray spot is the reason the whole ship's dancing the jitterbug."

"How is that possible?" asked Rimmer, dumbfounded. "It's so small!"

"It's not the size that matters, Arnold, it's what it's made of," replied Holly. "If the old database is correct, we're just two days away from a patch of gray matter."

“Gray matter?” asked Lister.

“So, what is it?” asked the Cat.

“I know of it!” said Rimmer, his face lighting up in recognition. “Gray matter is supposed to be the substance between matter and antimatter.”

“So, what is it?” the Cat repeated.

“It is what they call the aether, or the space in between. We have seen it before when we traveled across dimensions,” explained Kryten. “It is the middle ground between this reality and another one.”

“So, what is it?” asked the Cat.

“Cat, picture the universe as a big sandwich. One slice of bread is our side of it, containing matter. The other slice is the other side that has antimatter.” Lister explained, putting both his hands together like two pieces of bread. “Gray matter is like the chilli, cheese and chutney filling.” He added.

“Oh, so it’s like my tuna fish and mayonnaise!” the Cat exclaimed. “I get it now!”

“Gray matter is essentially the lifeblood of the universe,” said Holly. “It is the glue that keeps everything together, both living and nonliving. It’s a bit like the jam in one of the Captain’s favorite donuts.”

“It’s a wonder we’re able to see it,” said Rimmer. “Normally gray matter is hidden by the first, second and third dimensions!”

“It seems as if the two ships' combined cannon fire has pierced the fourth dimension,” explained Holly. “And now the universe is bleeding.”

“My goodness, that’s awful,” said Kryten worriedly. “There isn’t a bandage large enough to stop that!”

“This could be bad, buds,” said the Cat, taking a glance at each of them. “Gray’s the blandest color and it’s leaking all over the universe!"

“Never mind the color, Cat!” Lister exclaimed, waving a hand dismissively. “Does this mean the universe is actually dying, Hol?”

“At this rate, all life and nonliving things will cease to exist in two years’ time,” stated Holly. “So your assumption is correct, Dave.”

“Why did I have to right?” asked Lister, burying his head into the palm of his hand.

“More importantly, what are we going to do?” asked Rimmer. 

“There must be a way to fix it somehow!” Lister responded. “We can’t just leave it as it is!”

“It’s not an old hopper, Lister,” Rimmer said doubtfully. “You can’t just tighten up a couple of nuts and bolts with an ionic wrench and collect a day’s wages.”

“I know it’s not that simple, but we have to try _something_!” exclaimed Lister. “Come on, guys. We’ve all got five minds between us and Holly. There’s got to be a plan that’ll work.”

“I’d think the answer would be obvious,” said Rimmer smugly. “With the two years we have left, we can search for a device that will allow us to jump to an alternate universe that isn’t dying. We’ll be on a bit of a time crunch, so I suggest we skip teatime this afternoon.”

“What are you saying, Rimmer?” asked Lister, staring at him in disbelief. “You want us to just give up and fly the coop?”

“You expected something different from me?” Rimmer replied.

“That could theoretically work for a while, sir, but I don’t believe the expanding hole of gray matter would stay in this universe,” Kryten told him. “Dimensional passages open and close more times than a London bookshop. All it would take was a small seepage of gray matter to begin a life drain on the many alternate universes connected to this one.”

“This thing spreads worse than the cat flu,” said the Cat. “And in two years, it will make us deader than mutton chops!”

“If it comes down to it, we must take the path of least pain for all of us,” Kryten said somberly, glancing to the others. “I will program the dream cables to put extra power into the stasis booths and recharge stations. When it gets close to the end of days, we will all step inside and live our final moments in a state of pleasant, deep sleep. We won’t feel the disintegration of our physical forms.”

“That can’t be our _first_ plan, Krytes,” said Lister, looking away in disgust. “I don’t even like it as Plan Z. To put it bluntly, the idea’s a pile of smeg.”

“There’s no way I’d be satisfied with it either. You can’t just sleep off Armageddon!” Rimmer exclaimed. “That’s no solution at all! Besides, it wouldn’t solve the problem of it spreading to the rest of the Multiverse.”

“You actually _care_ about what happens to the dimensions outside our own, Mister Rimmer?” asked Kryten, surprised.

“Of course I care! In the rest of the Multiverse, there are other versions of _me_! I can’t let them down!” Rimmer exclaimed, gesturing to himself. “I’m sure they’d agree with me!”

“If only we could get a really huge needle and some starry looking thread,” said the Cat, thinking out loud. “We could just stitch the big hole back together! And I know how to make it look seamless.”

“Unless we happen to have a behemoth sized sewing kit hidden somewhere, we’ll need another plan,” Rimmer told him.

“The Cat’s right though. We don’t need to escape or put ourselves into suspended animation. We need to close the hole,” said Lister. “It’ll be the only way to save _us_ and the rest of the Multiverse.”

“Then I suggest we look through the ship’s library.” Kryten stated. “We might find a useful reference or two on how to deal with this.”

“Finally, you’ve said something reasonable that we can all agree with!” Rimmer remarked. “It must truly _be_ the end of days.”

“Wait a minute, doesn’t Monotone Voice know everything?” asked the Cat. “Why are we going to look at some dusty old books?”

“Even Holly overlooks things, Cat. We’ve got to do this fast,” replied Lister in a low voice.

“Holly, prepare the lift that will take us to the library,” Rimmer ordered. “And make it the nice one with the plush seats that plays _Vivaldi’s Four Seasons_ on the way down.”

“That’s the Captain’s lift, Arnold.” said Holly. “Only the Captain can use it."

“Right. And since I’m still the superior technician on board, that lift is as good as mine,” Rimmer replied smugly.

“Holly, just let him have it,” said Lister, exasperated. “We’re tryin’ to stop the _end of existence as we know it_ here!”

There was a clicking sound in the distance, followed by a beeping noise.

“Access to the Captain’s lift has been granted,” said Holly. “Although I must warn that you’re technically trespassing.”

“Holly, it’s entirely possible that I am forming my last hologrammatic memories,” said Rimmer. “I’d rather not feel the sensation of that rickety old service lift while my life flashes before my eyes. We’ll worry about _technical_ details later.”

Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten undid their seatbelts, and exited the drive room with Lister.

The doors for the Captain’s XPress Lift slid open, and the four of them stepped inside. The accommodations were definitely the best that Lister had ever seen, and he secretly wondered if he’d stepped into a hotel lobby by mistake. There were plush, blue seats, with a marble floor, along with a finished mahogany dining table on either side of the lift. Just above them was a mini-chandelier. In the middle was a ready-made bottle of champagne, chilled just enough to have a bit of ice forming outside its glass surface.

Rimmer started the music, and the spring section of _Vivaldi’s Four Seasons_ began to play. Kryten, by nature, was fluffing all the plush seats, and serving the glasses of champagne as the lift continued its descent to the library deck. And while the Cat stretched out and took an entire cushioned bench to himself, Lister’s mind was elsewhere. The irony was not lost on him that he’d taken the _Red Dwarf_ and everything on board for granted.

Lister once believed that he’d live out the rest of his life on the mining ship. He’d seen a future echo of his older self on the top bunk, telling him advice that would change his outlook about life on board. But now he was faced with the possibility of everything being erased, not just from his own universe, but from the Multiverse and all its branches. And only now, with the possibility of erasure hanging over his head like a gloomy storm cloud did Lister even consider appreciating what he had, and exploring what he’d missed. 

He’d never been in the Captain’s Lift until now, and he’d seen the library very few times since the radiation leak. How much more of the old ship did he pass by without stopping to consider how important it was? How much would be left untouched by him, if he were erased? If he made it out of this, Lister would make it up to the Dwarf somehow. In many ways, the mining ship had kept him alive. And although it wasn’t exactly a person with its own thoughts and agency, Lister felt as if he owed it something, and so his debt would be repaid if he could only live through this.

And maybe when they reached the library floor, Lister would find a way. He _said_ he would save them all. He had to stay true to his word.


	2. Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When in doubt, look things up! The boys are going to find answers in the library. Or rather, Lister is going to find some real definite clues on how to solve the crew's dilemma. How will it work out? Read on!

Right on cue with the ending of _Vivaldi’s Four Seasons_ , the Captain’s Lift reached its destination. Holly made a voice announcement that it was time to get off, just to be sure that the Cat would get up from the comfortable seats. Hearing his voice, the Cat muttered something unintelligible and reluctantly got to his feet, following closely behind the others.

“Here we are. And I have to say we took the smoothest ride down here we possibly could,” said Rimmer. He almost sounded cheerful.

“If we want any more smooth rides like that, sir, I suggest we begin our search for information as soon as possible,” said Kryten.

“We’ll split up from here,” said Lister. “The Cat and I will take the right side, while you and Rimmer will go to the left.”

The Cat looked to the right side of the library. “This is the side with all the picture books! I can handle that!”

“I couldn’t have made a better call myself, Listy.” Rimmer commented. “However, I’m not sure if you will find anything useful over there.”

“The textbooks and manuals on _this_ side might be far in advance to your own reading level, Mister Rimmer,” Kryten remarked, smirking.

“No one asked you, Kryten. I happened to go to school in Io House, and I know _plenty_ of fancy words,” Rimmer snapped. “I could probably tell you the technical names of every piece of equipment in this library.”

“Let’s not get into who knows what,” Lister reminded them. “Remember why we’re here. The Multiverse is counting on _us_! We have to search for any clues about gray matter, no matter how big or small.”

“I say we should meet in the middle, by the geography textbooks,” said Kryten. “We’ll keep this first search down to an hour.”

“Let’s go then,” Lister replied, nodding his head in agreement.

The two teams split up. While Rimmer was already leading the way in one of his pompous strides, Lister was taking his time as he looked between the shelves. But he didn’t just look at the bookshelves. He also looked to the books propped up as displays, as well as the various volumes that were open on the study desks. While the Cat pulled out a few comics about a space-traveling adventurer with a rather shiny smile, Lister had a sort of prickling feeling, as if he was forgetting something important.

He felt like the answer to their problem was _right there_ , but he couldn’t figure out why. He had been here a few times before. While it wasn’t exactly his main hangout, Lister had set foot in the ship’s library a few times. Before and after the radiation leak, it was still the best place to get new musical albums he didn’t have yet. Only now, he didn’t have to bother with the whole checking out process, but he always made it a point to still return the records back where he found them. That was just the polite thing to do.

Maybe his answer wasn’t in the books, but in a song. Leaving the Cat to his own devices, Lister made a beeline to the back of the library, where all the musical records, tapes, and hologrammatic recordings of music were available for all to hear. There was even an old phonograph on one of the study tables. It had apparently been one of Todhunter’s heirlooms, and now it was still there three million years later, with the brass shiny as ever. Todhunter used to play old jazz music on it while he studied there, and now it lay still and silent.

Although he was tempted to start the phonograph again, Lister decided against it. Now probably wasn’t the time or place for music and dancing. Going past it, that prickly feeling he had earlier grew stronger. Just what was he trying to remember? It was right there on the edge of his subconscious. If he could only say it, then his search would be over.

Lister wasn’t exactly sure why, but he was inclined to look upwards.

There, on a bookshelf just a few feet away, was a ship manual on a single-book display rack. It was a hardcover version of one of _Red Dwarf’s_ numerous operating manuals. Having one large book would have been far too thick and costly, so it was split up into several books, going to different parts of the mining ship. The book on the display rack was about the engine room, and it had been flipped to a page with a very large black and white drafting sketch featuring two cylinders, each with an orb suspended perfectly in the middle. On the left side was a black orb, and on the right side was white orb. The words “Antimatter Drive” were written in a neat manuscript just above the sketch.

The sketch and the words caught Lister’s eye, and he stopped just short of the _Red Dwarf_ Library’s musical collection. He grabbed the book off the display rack and looked at the sketch closer. He’d seen this before! During one of Lister’s more sober days before the radiation leak, he saw this sketch and flipped to the next page, to see if he could actually read more about it and understand how it worked. He was always curious about how machines worked, even if he could never muster up the effort to invent his own.

The technical terms and engineering jargon were lost on him. But the detailed pictures jogged memories that Lister hadn’t recalled in all the time he spent on the mining ship. 

It was the first time Lister was on planet leave. He was at this new Indian restaurant with his best mates Petersen, Selby and Chen. While they were mostly there for the drink, Lister wanted to go for their new recipe: The Venus Fireball Curry that was supposed to be the spiciest curry in the solar system. It wasn’t the food that mattered now, but how it was served.

It wasn’t brought to Lister by a waiter or waitress. Instead it was floated over to him from the serving window, all the way to his table in the back. While the guys were too drunk to ask questions about how this was possible, Lister had wondered about it. Just before they’d left to Petersen’s favorite pubs, Lister asked the server at the counter whether his plate really floated to him, or if he had a bit too much to drink that evening.

“We really did send it right to you! It’s amazing, isn’t it?” The server slapped his hand over a tiny, gray box and smiled. “All I do is put the directions in this little antimatter drive. It does some techy stuff and makes a wave that sends the plates anywhere I want them to go. It’s incredible.”

That little machine had been impressive to Lister at the time. And now his memory of it was even more important than before. Just like the little eatery that floated food directly to his table, _Red Dwarf_ had an antimatter drive. It brought the two opposite halves of matter and antimatter together to create power. If anything could close that gray hole, it would be this device.

“I’ve got it!” Lister exclaimed out loud. The Cat looked up at him from another comic book.

“What did you find?” the Cat wondered, as he made his way to Lister and looked at the engineering text in his hands. “They look like a bunch of little drawings.”

“I’ll explain it later when we meet up with Kryten and Rimmer,” Lister explained. “I think we all need to hear about this.”

Lister and the Cat made their way to the middle section of the library. Kryten and Rimmer weren’t too far away, and they were going over the various textbooks and guides in the section about astronavigation. Lister quietly called them over. Kryten had been carrying a stack of thick books in his hands, and nearly dropped them as he jumped in surprise. Rimmer, on the other hand, wasn't startled or surprised. He wore a scowl as he turned around and folded his arms across his chest. He didn’t exactly look the most open to any new ideas, but Lister had to try.

“What are you doing here? You’re about a half-hour early!” Rimmer hissed. “Did you forget how to read a clock, Lister?”

“I’m here because I think our search is over,” said Lister. “Take a look at this!” he added, pointing at the manual excitedly.

He showed off the two pages that illustrated the antimatter drive, and the sketches of the drive in action. Rimmer raised a skeptical eyebrow. There’s no way Lister could be done so early! He and Kryten had just started their search! 

“Just what are you showing me?” Rimmer asked him. “This better not be a waste of my time, Lister. We have a lot of astronav texts to look through.”

Kryten set down the tower of volumes he was carrying and glanced over the pages curiously. Turning on his speed reading mode, he was able to process the information in a matter of seconds. Then he went about putting it in the simplest language that maybe even the Cat could understand.

“These pages are about the antimatter drive, sir. Every _JMC_ ship is equipped with at least one.” Kryten explained. “It takes two solid spheres of matter and antimatter at just the right place for them to react, and then they propel the ship forward. That is how we’re able to reach light speed.”

“So those two little dots make us zoom forward?” asked the Cat curiously.

“Yeah, that’s the jist of it,” said Lister.

“What does the antimatter drive have to do with the hole in the universe?” asked Rimmer.

“It’s sort of like the tides in the sea, you know. There’s a push and pull kind of reaction,” said Lister, pushing his hands outward, and drawing them back in. “First, the two halves pull in energy in equal parts, and then they push it out!”

“So our antimatter drive could pull the universe back together?” Rimmer wondered. “But how? We’d probably never get it close enough to start the reaction before we disintegrate!”

“That’s why we’d fire it from the engine room and into the gray hole,” said Lister. “We’d be a safe distance away while the drive works its magic for us.”

“That would be the first stage of the process, Dave,” Holly’s voice said above them.

“Holly, are you telling me this will work then?” Lister questioned him.

“That was a solution that I’ve calculated, yes,” replied Holly.

“Wait a minute, he said that it would be the first step of the process,” said the Cat suspiciously. “What about the second step?”

“He’s got a point,” said Rimmer cautiously. “Can you tell us what will happen once the energy is released, Holly?”

“I cannot answer that question, Arnold” Holly told him.

“What do you _mean_ you can’t answer me!? You’re supposed to have an IQ of six thousand!” Rimmer exclaimed furiously. “You’re supposed to have all the answers!”

“As it stands, sir, the antimatter drive is attached to numerous devices and locks within the engine room. These mechanisms prevent its reaction from being too dangerous to operate the mining ship,” explained Kryten. “However, the universe has no such control over how much energy is released, or at what force. There would be nothing to shield us or keep us safe, should the chain reaction be too much for our bodies to handle.”

“So what does that mean for us, Kryten?” Lister asked him seriously.

“Well, sir, there is no way of sugarcoating it, I’m afraid,” said Kryten, looking downwards and folding his mechanical fingers together. He bowed his head in regret. “If we do set off this chain reaction, there is a chance we might not survive.”

“Hol, can you confirm that?” asked Lister. “Are we going to risk our lives doing this?”

“As I mentioned before, I cannot give a precise answer,” said Holly. “Gray matter has never been visible until now, and this type of reaction has never been attempted. There still might be a possibility that all of you will live.”

“Don’t try and give us false hope, Holly,” said Rimmer, scowling. “If we sit around and do nothing, we’ll simply cease to be! But if we go forward with this chain reaction, we might not even be around to see the results. That’s two downsides and no upside as far as I can see.”

“There might still be a silver lining to all this, sirs,” said Kryten, looking at his fellow crew mates.

“The only silver lining I see will be on the suit I wear to my funeral,” the Cat said miserably.

“What’s the bright side, Krytes, besides the small hope that we’ll make it out?” Lister questioned him.

“Even if we do not live, there is still an opportunity for the rest of the universe to continue on,” said Kryten hopefully. “And no matter what happens to our physical forms, the black box containing our final moments will remain. We will be remembered, sirs. And if you believe in it, this might just help us in the afterlife.”

“And what if you don’t believe in an afterlife?” asked Rimmer. “I’ve never seen any proof even though I’ve died before!”

“Perhaps now would be the time to revise your views on such matters, sir,” Kryten advised.

“I’ll revise on my own time, thank you _very much_!” Rimmer snapped.

“We don’t _have_ to go with this idea do we?” asked the Cat. “Can’t we just change our minds and do something different?”

“I think you already know the answer to that,” Lister replied solemnly. “We aren’t going to find another plan. No one’s seen this sort of thing before us. There’s no journals, no manuals, no textbooks, nothing. We’re on our own here. It’s us against the thing that could wipe out everything and everyone.”

“Well, it is said that everything happens for a reason, Dave,” said Holly. “Perhaps we were brought all this way to prevent the universe from unraveling.”

“I think we were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time, as usual,” said Rimmer dismissively. “I can’t believe it’s come to this. There’s no way out.”

“That’s right, Rimmer. There is no way to escape this time, so we might as well do what needs to be done,” Lister told him. Although his words were serious and somber to fit the tone, they did not speak of despair. As a matter of fact, it was quite the opposite. There was a quiet determination emanating from him. “Red Dwarf crew, it’s been the four of us for a long time, five if we count Holly among us. We’ve shared a lot of hard times, and celebrations too. We’ve all lived a hell of a life, no matter who we are, where we came from, or how we’re made. We’ve _stuck together_ and that’s what counts. And now we’re faced with our final mission. And we might not see the end result, but at least we’d know we tried. What do you say? Will all of you join me one last time and see this through?”

All at once, Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat fell silent, looking thoughtful. They each took in Lister’s words, and the meaning behind them. For once, there were no jokes or remarks about who should give up their life first. They were in this together, when it came down to it.

Lister reached his hand forward, forming it into a fist.

The Cat laid his hand on top of Lister’s.

“You already know my answer, Bud. I’m with you!” said the Cat with a toothy smile. “I’d rather give your plan a shot than waiting around for that gray dullness swallow me!”

Kryten was next to place his hand on the pile. He was smiling peacefully.

“I will be with you until the very end, Mister Lister. Although you have broken my programming, I still want to stay out of a sense of loyalty,” stated Kryten. “It’s my choice, and it’s one I’m content to make.”

At last, Rimmer laid his hand on top of all of theirs. He had a self-satisfied grin on his face, almost as if the situation amused him.

“I never thought I’d see the day you actually tried for _anything_ , Lister. You can count me in. I won’t run away this time,” said Rimmer. “Of course, I realize there are no places to run, but that’s beside the point. I want to remain at your side. We’ll have quite the entry in the history books, if they’re still being written nowadays.”

“It’d be hard to top _our_ entry, wouldn’t it?” Lister replied, chuckling. “Two technicians, a cat and an android giving their all for the sake of the universe, you just don’t see that anywhere else. We’ll all be remembered as one-of-a-kind.”

“Well, sir, we could hardly do any better.” Kryten commented.

“I say we couldn’t do any worse,” said the Cat. “People will dance for days to honor my memory. I’d be dancing right with them, but I’m on my ninth life!”

“We can do this, guys, for the present and the future,” said Lister. 

He withdrew his hand from the bottom of the others’, and then he brought both his hands into the air, his palms towards him and his fingers pointed down. Lister gave the others an expecting look as he held his hands in place.

“After all, who are we?” he asked.

“We’re the Boys from the Dwarf!” the others exclaimed, in nearly perfect harmony. Even Rimmer’s voice was among them as they followed Lister’s lead.

The rest of them withdrew their hands, and then waved them in the familiar way they always did when it was time to show their solidarity. They were a group, a posse, a band of four amigos. And they’d walk together as one, even in the end. 

As their hands dropped to their sides in their moment of shared unity, Holly spoke to them once more.

“You have all reached an agreement then. That’s a sight for sore eyes,” Holly commented. “When you are ready to proceed, go to the drive room.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can, Hol. There’s just one more thing I want to take care of first,” Lister answered him.

“If it’s a farewell song on your guitar, Lister, I’m afraid I will have to spend my time somewhere else for a while,” Rimmer remarked, rolling his eyes. “The very bottom of Z-Deck would suffice.”

“One song wouldn’t do it. I think we should take a page from that old Admiral’s book and record our last words,” Lister suggested.

“Ah, yes. That is customary before any final mission, isn’t it, sir?” said Kryten.

“You mean I have to record all my last words in just one take?” asked the Cat. “What if I forget something? My audience will have to know!”

“Just say whatever words are on your mind, man, and Holly will record it for you,” Lister assured him. “We can speak anywhere on the ship, and we can add or take out whatever we want. Don’t stress over it.”

“I suppose I can just use this time to relax before taking the next big plunge,” Rimmer commented. “Since I’m already dead, I don’t _need_ to record my last words again.”

“You should feel lucky man, you’re the only one who gets a do-over,” Lister remarked, playfully nudging Rimmer in the ribs with his elbow.

“My first set of last words is _not_ up for review!” Rimmer exclaimed hotly. “Future generations should _know_ how much one bowl of hot soup can screw up your career!”

“They’ll also know how much you had a screw loose,” the Cat muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?!” Rimmer snapped, turning towards the Cat.

“See you in the drive room, Non-Bud,” the Cat answered casually, waving at him before he made his way to exit the library.

Soon after the Cat departed, Lister and the others all went their separate ways. Within each of their minds was a single idea: to say their last words in a place that meant something special to them. It was a way to make their own peace, to cast aside any last-minute doubts, and to air out any unfinished business. It only felt right to do something like this alone. Their usual comments, antics, and petty arguments had no place in what would be their final messages to the universe at large.


	3. Epitaphs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These farewell scenes really hit me in the feels when I wrote them. I tried to write them in a way that made sense for the characters, but also in a way where it seems like they're talking to the viewer. I hope it works!

Kryten chose the laundry room as his recording spot. It was the place where he felt the most comfortable. Although he’d long broken his programming, there was something calming about folding sheets and putting them in neat, precise stacks. As a matter of fact, he was folding a set of sheets now, which he’d dried with a lavender-scented fabric softener. That lavender was Kryten’s favorite scent. He wasn’t sure how, but it eased his nerve circuits. And it made what he was about to say all that much easier for him.

Once he ordered Holly to activate the black box recording, Kryten started to speak.

“Ah, greetings future traveler. If you receive this message, it is likely that you are viewing it after I’ve ceased operating. I know it’s not customary for a mechanoid to record their final words, but it was the wishes of my owner…” he stopped, thought about that term, and corrected himself.

“Actually, you could say it was my dear _friend_ Mister Lister who gave the suggestion and I could hardly refuse. I owe so much to him. He selflessly extended his hand to me twice when he could have easily looked the other way. It’s because of Mister Lister that I know what emotions are, and I’ve opened up my mind to do more than what I was programmed for. I do understand the human emotion of regret, but I also know that I hardly have any. There is only one thing that I wish I could do, but I’m certain that it is impossible. For all that he’s done for me I wish that I could do _something_ to protect Mister Lister, to ensure some way that his life will continue even if mine will not. I’ve always wanted the best for him and I always hoped he would achieve his dreams.”

Kryten thought of ending his message here, until more ideas came to mind. “There will be others I will miss as I go to Silicon Heaven. There’s Holly, our computer. He’s always gotten us out of trouble, even if he was the cause of it most of the time. And I haven’t seen anybody pull off an April fool’s joke ten months in advance. He might ascend with me, but I don’t think the great Engineer of the Sky would like his company more than ten minutes.”

“Then there’s Mister Cat. While he may be vain, self-obsessed, and always far more worried over his appearance than even his own well-being, I have enjoyed sewing and ironing all his different fabrics. And for all his faults, he is quite fearless. And finally, there’s Mister Rimmer. There are quite a few names that the crew share for Mister Rimmer, but he only brings it on himself, as neurotic and ego-centric as he tends to be. You see, he’s always been a smee…” Kryten paused again. “A smee… a complete and total smeghead!” the droid exclaimed, finally getting the words out. “But he has shown redeeming qualities.” He hesitated again, wondering why he said that, and drawing a blank. “He’s always kept his bunk tidy.” Kryten concluded.

And as he decided to end his message, the final sheet in the stack was folded neatly. It was fitting that he’d done the last rotation of laundry before all was said and done. Kryten would never be completely satisfied with himself if there was a single dish rag left unfolded. It was important for him to spill out everything he said about Lister and the others, but his duties were equally important. And with both things done, he figured he’d found peace. And if there turned out to be a Silicon Heaven after all, he’d be headed there, no questions asked. 

Four floors up from the laundry room, the Cat arrived at one of the ship’s dance studios. There were stage lights just above him, and large, floor to ceiling mirrors and a shiny wooden floor. He caught a look at his reflection, and committed it to memory, as it would probably be the last time he would have a chance to truly look upon his exquisite form.

The Cat had to admit one thing. He’d really outdone himself with this suit he picked. He’d picked it up from the stylist that Ace gave him the directions for - and had been saving it for a very special occasion. He wore a shiny, golden jacket, a black vest underneath along with black slacks, and the shiniest black shoes he could get his claws on. On his neck was a golden bowtie, and his hair was tied back in a black ribbon. It was a shame that he was wearing this as part of his last dance, rather than his first dance with a female partner, like he’d hoped. When all was said and done, however, there was nothing he could do. So, as many human and cat performers said alike: he’d finish on a song.

Once he told Holly to begin the recording, the Cat looked up toward the ceiling.

“Hey there, future Buds. This is supposed to be my last message, but I’ll be up front. I’m a cat, and I don’t do all that human stuff like sobbing my eyes out and talking about all the things I’ve never said,” the Cat began speaking. “We cats show what we mean through movement. So watch closely, because this is the last dance you’ll have to remember me by!” He looked to the side at a speaker. “Monotone Voice, play number three on my list of tunes!” The Cat ordered.

“Alright, Cat. I’m playing number three,” Holly’s voice answered.

Right after the Cat gave the command, a few drum beats started Donna Summer’s _Hot Stuff_. 

The Cat closed his eyes, and let the beat of the music flow into him. His hips started swaying at the first few notes, and then his arms shook to the rhythm. His feet tapped for a few seconds, and then he stepped forward in a sharp, deliberate manner. And as the music kept playing, the Cat brought himself into a twirl, leaving a golden, spinning shape just before the cameras recording his every move. When he completed his spin, the feline continued to move and shake, moving his legs and hips in what he thought was a smooth, seductive way. And as the final notes played, the Cat slid on his knees, spread his arms apart, and sang out loud until the song faded into silence.

In one motion, the Cat pulled himself upwards, and smiled at the camera. He winked.

“There you have it, that was my last show and I’m counting on you to do the encore if you find this!” the Cat exclaimed. “Don’t leave any steps out now! I’ll be watching from the Promised Land.” he added. The Cat gave the universal ‘I’ve got my eye on you’ gesture, and then his part of the transmission ended.

Far from the dance studio, towards the front of the _JMC_ mining ship, _Red Dwarf_ , Arnold J. Rimmer, Acting Senior Officer stood in the drive room. He’d donned his white officer’s uniform, complete with all his long-service medals. He wasn’t sure why he bothered with his formal dress. His recording would be rather short and sweet, he thought. This was only for the sake of appearances, of course. Rimmer felt more _dignified_ in his formal wear, and he certainly felt like the Admiral he never managed to be.

Rimmer switched on the microphone to get on with his business.

“This is the hard light hologram Arnold J. Rimmer, acting Senior Officer. And I’d just like to add something to my previous set of last words,” Rimmer began. “In addition to gazpacho soup, I would like to note, very strongly, that like revenge, it is best served _cold_ , thank you,” he added.

He went to switch the microphone off, but then hesitated. Something was holding him back, and Rimmer couldn’t be quite certain what it was. There was this nagging feeling that he couldn’t leave his message there, and he had a lot more to say. Taking his finger away from the switch-off box, Rimmer backed away.

“There is actually more I have to add, so I won’t turn this off just yet. Allow me to start again,” said Rimmer.

“On your own time, Arnold,” Holly replied, somewhat encouraging.

“Right,” Rimmer nodded. And he started off his additional message with a full version of the Rimmer salute. He’d never had a chance to change the Space Corps official salute to his own, so he figured it would go nicely with his final message to the universe, in hopes that someone would pick it up and continue his legacy. “I’ll start again. I am Arnold J. Rimmer, and these will be my final words to any future travelers who come across the _Red Dwarf’s_ black box. You’ll also find a copy of these words inside my lightbee, which will encode them into my very core. Now, if you happen to _find_ my lightbee I only ask that you view this last recording. My other memories are _private_ , miladdos, and I will not stand for snooping beyond my holo-grave. Once we agree to that, we can proceed.”

Rimmer went at ease and slowly walked towards the front of the drive room. There was a clear shot of the window facing out into deep space, which would probably make an excellent shot for whenever this recording was played back. It was a real shame he wouldn’t get to see himself played back, looking so dignified and important. He turned to face the recorder’s camera with the stars behind him.

“As a commanding officer on this ship, as well as its surface vessel _Starbug_ for quite some time, I’ve seen my crew through all sorts of danger, mayhem, and jaw-dropping terror. Over the years we’ve encountered GELFs, rogue simulants, insane computers, chameleonic life forms both hostile and benign, and even a future version of ourselves that we all swore we’d never become. Through every encounter, we’ve survived. We’ve lived to run another day, and sometimes that’s more important than fighting. But now my crew and I are facing something we cannot escape. I normally don’t go along with the foolish, romantic idea that a commanding officer should go down with the ship, but I have nowhere else to go.” 

As the next few words came out, Rimmer felt his voice break as he failed to control his emotions. “My whole human life, I never had anyone who loved me, or accepted me for who I was. My own family only wanted their _idea_ of me as a high achiever. And to the original crew I was nothing, a zero, someone to be laughed at. But here and now, I’ve truly _lived_ in a way I never have before. And while my crew might be the most ragtag bunch out of any the Corps has ever seen, in their way, they’ve been loyal. Lister can be recklessly optimistic, Kryten can sometimes be fussy and over-correcting, as for the Cat, I sometimes wonder if anything ever happens in that mind of his. But out of all the things they’ve done to irritate me, insult me, and sometimes undermine my authority, they’ve never left me behind. Sometimes I feel like that’s more than I deserve. And I never thanked them for it. At least, I never said the words ‘thank you.’”

“Today, I hope to make up for it. Today, I’ll fulfill the last part of my personal mission. Every hologram has a reason they’re revived. I was brought here to keep Lister sane. Most of the time, we argued and bickered about everything, but I suppose that was our normal. Soon, I will stand beside Lister as he risks his life for the rest of the universe. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife, or if humans and holograms end up going to the same place. I won’t get all sappy and _wish_ for it either. But here and now, with the time I have left, I’ll be here for Lister when he’s still alive.”

Rimmer ended the recording. Right on cue, hologrammatic tears came to his eyes. He hid his face from the cameras, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. Rimmer tried to focus on something, anything to get his mind off the feeling of impending doom. He settled his gaze upon the distant stars, all but forcing himself to stand at attention. He had to compose himself. The others would be finished with their recordings and gathering here soon. For their sake, as well as his own, he had to be strong.

Just beyond the drive room, down a few corridors and right behind Dispensing Machine Number forty-seven was the officer’s habitation deck. Almost all the bunk rooms were open, except for one, which had been closed and locked shut. Just beyond that door was David Lister, wringing his hands and pacing the length of his sleeping quarters. He let out a nervous breath as he took in all the sights of the room. There was and Rimmer’s beds, the magazine cutouts featuring Fiji, Jim Bexley Speed, along with Polaroid pictures both old and new plastered on the walls by his top bunk. There was also his guitar hanging on the wall close by, and the little table that was all but taken up by Rimmer’s study guides, along with Lister’s various comic books, magazines and even knitting patterns. His robotic goldfish were here, still swimming around without a care in the universe.

Lister took the time to look down at Rimmer’s bunk, along with the ridiculous newspaper clippings, the meticulously made revision timetables, and the two framed swimming certificates. These were all everyday things, the mundane sights that Lister was used to seeing before and after the radiation leak that changed his life forever. And now he was trying to imprint every last detail of this place in his memory, in hopes he wouldn’t forget it in the afterlife, if there indeed, was one.

Lister could’ve gone anywhere. Parrots was open 24/7 and there was all the booze and music needed for him to get into a state of drunken bliss. The pool hall on C-Deck would have been just as inviting, and the cigar dispensing machine would have been delighted to see him. The movie theater would likely be playing _Citizen Kane_ this time of the week and the popcorn would have been plentiful. But at this moment, Lister didn’t want to be entertained, and he definitely wanted to be sober. By instinct he returned to the one place on the city-sized mining ship that felt like home to him.

He finally stopped his pacing, taking in a deep breath and exhaling. It was now or never. If Lister didn’t talk now, his final recording would be more of a last walk-around, instead of the words he really wanted to say.

“Sorry for the delay, Hol. I don’t think I’m as ready for this as I thought I was,” Lister confessed.

“It’s a difficult situation, Dave,” said Holly. “I can’t blame you for thinking things over. I've even tried to find another solution, but nothing comes to mind.”

“I figured there wouldn’t be another way, but thanks anyways,” Lister replied. “I’ve got one chance. I’ll use it the best I can.”

Lister took in another deep breath and exhaled. He steeled his expression, looking more serious and mature than he ever remembered looking in his life. He faced the camera without fear, and the earlier hesitation melted away. This was his time, his moment to say whatever he wanted, however he wanted. He wouldn’t waste it for anything.

“Hello, everybody. I guess if you’re here seeing this, it means you made it. I’m glad you did. We won’t get the chance to meet each other face to face, but I wanted to tell you who I am, and why I’m recording this,” said Lister. “I’m Dave Lister, and as of this recording, I’m the last known human alive. Now, there’s a long story behind that, but the surviving ship logs should cover it. I’ve got a lot to say. These are my last words after all.”

“My life’s been full of choices, and I’ve always tried to make the easiest ones. I never fit into all the traditional smeg you’d hear about in my century. Being a career guy in a suit and a tie never really fit my image. I’ve always tried my best not to take life too seriously. Truth be told, I’m a bit of a bum, but that’s not something I’m ashamed of. It takes all sorts to make a crew, doesn’t it?”

“We’ve certainly _got_ all sorts here even though there are only four of us. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them sooner or later with the other recordings. They’ve all got their own personalities, thoughts, and weird habits, just like any of us. But they also have hopes, dreams, and ideals, just like you and me. It’s strange. At the beginning we all sort of clashed over everything. Rimmer was anal, the Cat was so, so vain, and as for Kryten, he wasn’t always able to lie and swear, I taught him that. But I don’t think I’d want to travel with anyone else. We’ve stuck together through everything. We became inseparable.”

He managed a tiny smile, but it quickly faded. “After today, I’m not sure if my crew will be going anywhere, not unless the afterlife involves us flying our own starship. Just hours before I started this recording, we all found a tear in the universe. There’s only one way to fix it, and that’s by releasing our antimatter drive to pull it back together. No one’s ever done this sort of thing before, and I don’t know what kind of chain reaction it’ll cause. But if you’re here and I’m not, you’ll know my plan worked and you’re safe. It’ll be a shame that we don’t get to share a pint, but maybe you’ll pour one out for old Dave Lister if beer’s your fancy. Also if you’re eating a curry, I’ll be there in spirit.”

Lister waved at the camera, forcing himself to grin, if only to make sure the end of his recording wouldn’t show a scowl on his face.

“See you around, space cadets. If you’ve got a home, I hope you get there. I couldn’t get back to Earth, but I guess the _Red Dwarf_ ’s been home for me. Cheers.”

Lister ended his message there. He figured that was a good sign-off, one that hopefully wouldn’t lead to too many tears whenever someone found it. He’d always lived a life half-full, and didn’t intend to let his own death be a downer. Making his last speech made Lister feel better about his final mission, because he knew why it had to be done. This wasn’t about him anymore, but for those who were going to live after him. Whether they were the descendants of the Cat’s people, the crew of the Holo-ship, a group of androids who broke their programming, or maybe by some strange paradox, his parallel female opposite, he would save them from being erased. It wasn’t a bad way to go, really.


	4. Echoes

Just as they’d planned, the Boys from the Dwarf convened in the drive room, each of them arriving not too far apart from one another. Rimmer did an about face, and then nodded his head at Kryten, the Cat, and Lister as they all arrived. Lister stood in the middle, while the others surrounded him, standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. They were crowded around a single panel in the drive room. At this console were the controls to all of _Red Dwarf’s_ engines and drives.

When he let a full minute of silence pass for them, Lister sat down at the chair that was in front of the drive console. He looked back at his companions one more time, before he spoke clearly to Holly.

“Alright, I’m ready, Hol. Which buttons do I press?” Lister asked.

“I double checked my data banks and that nifty little book you found just to be sure,” said Holly. “You press the blue circle, the black and white triangles, and then finally, you’ll pull the release lever.”

Kryten looked over the panel, doing calculations in his mind as he went over Holly’s instructions. “Consider that triple-checked and proven, sir. That sequence of buttons will access the engine room, select both sides of the Antimatter drive, and jettison it into space.”

“And after that, all we can do is watch,” Rimmer said grimly.

“I don’t think I’ll be watching,” said the Cat. “I’m keeping my eyes closed.”

“I’m starting up the sequence,” said Lister. “First, I press the blue button.”

Lister started walking himself through the steps out loud just to make sure he did them in order. When he touched the blue button, it glowed, and some words popped up on the computer screen, replacing Holly’s face. The words indicated that Lister had got into the _Red Dwarf’s_ engine.

“Next are the triangles,” Rimmer stated. “I don’t think it matters which order you press them in.”

After hesitating for a second, Lister pressed the black triangle button, pointing down first, and then the white triangle, pointing upwards next. The virtual outline of the mining ship’s engine zoomed in to the Antimatter Drive, and both sides of it were glowing. A series of options appeared in a drop-down menu, with each option corresponding with a different button on the panel. There was one part of the menu that was written in red text, labeled:

Ejection: For Emergencies Only

Lister matched the lever with the picture that was shown on the dropdown menu. He gripped the handle, and turned it all the way to the left side. There was a jolt throughout the mining ship, and the crew were jerked slightly forward as the Antimatter Drive was sent on its way. Lister and his companions quickly recovered, and then watched what was happening outside the drive room’s window with great apprehension.

The Antimatter Drive tumbled forward in a circular motion, almost like a pinwheel in a gentle breeze. The engine part practically danced toward its targeted destination, with its two opposite spheres in an elegant mid-space waltz. It would have been the stuff of poetry, if there were poets who wrote about this sort of thing. But to the four pairs of eyes who watched it, it meant more than any fancy language used to describe it. The drive was their last shining hope at the end of a dying universe.

Lister and his crew continued to look on as the Antimatter drive went smoothly along its trajectory. And then, as if it were taking a few final steps of a classic waltz, the ship part turned one more complete circle. And then it was drawn into the center of the gray matter patch, where it sunk inside completely. What followed next was absolute silence. While Lister and the Cat were still breathing, and the _Red Dwarf’s_ other engines were still running strong, they didn’t make a sound. It was as if sound itself had been sucked into the hole along with the Antimatter Drive.

Although he was unable to speak, the Cat got the others’ attention by pointing very definitely at the window. His crew mates followed his finger, and they watched as the gray hole slowly drew inwards, shrinking in size until only the blackness of space remained. And from the center where the drive had pulled two opposite fabrics of space-time together, an invisible shockwave swept forward. It carried all the trapped sounds, sending them on a fast track to their original places. 

The Cat screeched is agony as his hearing came back along with every sound in the ship hitting his ears at once. Lister tried to reach for him, but he was overcome by the same wave, dropping to his knees, clapping his hands over his ears. Kryten, who’d felt it coming, turned off his aural systems at just the right moment. He gently grabbed a hold of Lister and the Cat’s upper arms, trying all he could to remember his soothing protocols. 

Rimmer had nearly doubled over from the sound wave, but his self-regulation and self-repair circuits worked in tandem to help him recover.

“Kryten, I’ve got a feeling that was just the first wave!” Rimmer exclaimed. “We have to take Lister and the Cat and get out of here!”

“The second wave is approaching. Collision with _Red Dwarf_ will be in ten seconds,” Holly’s voice said.

“We have no time to retreat, sir! We barely have time to speak!” Kryten replied in a panicked voice.

“What do we do then?!” Rimmer cried.

“Lean in, and brace for impact, sir!” Kryten answered with a shout.

Rimmer didn’t question it, and quickly leapt towards the others. He felt Kryten’s strong mechanical arm wrap around his back, and he was pulled closer into the group’s huddle. By instinct, Rimmer’s other arm reached out and grabbed on to whoever was on his right side. That happened to be Lister. And while his ears were ringing and all his senses were beyond the point of overload, Lister clung back tightly in return. As one man, the crew held on tightly, shut their eyes, and waited for the inevitable second wave.

Holly’s voice was starting to break up as he reached the last two seconds of his countdown, as if there were some kind of static interference.

And then with no more delay, the second wave hit them.

The crew didn’t see it happen, but if they would have still been looking outside the window, they would have seen a great sheet of silver light rush towards them. The light did not pass through _Red Dwarf_ , but started to push the old mining ship forwards. The ship picked up momentum, and soon it was accelerating at speeds never before reached even when its engines were new on its maiden voyage to Jupiter.

The _Red Dwarf_ broke the light barrier in a matter of minutes. Holly could no longer speak or manifest his face, and it was getting difficult to think, even though thinking was the primary purpose of his runtime. It took all his circuitry, power and every function in his free will computer chips to hold himself, and thus, the mining ship together. You are a computer running a spaceship, and you’re not a pile of steel, wire and explosives ready to go off any moment. You are in complete control, Holly kept thinking. 

_Red Dwarf_ rattled and shook against the unnatural speed as it kept on going, who knows where. While Lister and his crew remained in their tight group huddle, he could hear voices, their voices within earshot. He strained to hear and understand.

“Did any of you say something?” Lister asked over the commotion.

“Not me, Bud, I’m at a loss for words!” the Cat replied.

“I’m hearing you guys! I swear I am!” Lister exclaimed.

“It may be an auditory hallucination, sir! The ship is accelerating at speeds I can’t even measure!” Kryten responded.

“It’s not a hallucination, Kryten, I’m sure it’s the future echoes!” Rimmer corrected him. “We’ve probably broken the light barrier! It’s happened before!”

“So does that mean we’ve got a future after all?” Lister asked.

“Somebody look, tell me if I’m still wearing the same suit!” said the Cat.

“I wouldn’t get our hopes up! We’ll probably just hear our final screams before we all get wiped out by whatever we crash into!” Rimmer shouted. “I’m better off not knowing about it!”

“I don’t think this is the end for us!” Lister exclaimed in reply. “It looks bad now, but we’ll make it through! We always have!”

“How do you know that for sure?” Rimmer asked him over the noise. “How are you _certain_ that we’ll see another tomorrow?!”

“I don’t know! I don’t have all the answers, Rimmer!” Lister told him. “But right now, we’ve got to hold on!”

Lister gripped tighter onto Rimmer and the Cat, who both squeezed back in return. And while the crew remained locked in each other’s arms, Lister took a chance, and forced his eyes open. He glanced to the left, to the right, and just behind the Cat’s ear, wondering which kind of future echoes he would see, if he got any visuals at all. There were figures, ghosts of the future lingering in the drive room, but they were too far away to see. It might have been a trick of the shadows, but Lister swore that one of the figures, which had his face, looked directly at him.

He heard his own voice played back, almost like a recording.

It was distant and distorted, but Lister picked up on the words.

_“Are you telling me that all four of us survived?”_

Lister was certain he heard that correctly. They survived? _All four of them_ survived? But where were they, and how did they get there? How come Lister couldn’t see the others’ future echoes? What was going to happen to them?

The _Red Dwarf_ gave another lurch before he could think on it further. Lister shut his eyes again, and brought his head back into the middle of his crew’s huddle. He had to keep holding on. Nothing else mattered. He’d keep the guys close to him. They were his posse, and if he truly made it to the other side of this, he wanted to be there with them.

The mining ship hurtled through space even faster than the speed of future echoes. It passed through dimensional gates and passageways as if they were revolving doors. The Dwarf blazed a speeding red trail into deep space, as it zipped by planets, disintegrated asteroids in its wake, pushed aside derelicts and active ships alike. At this point, Holly concentrated extra hard to remember that he and the ship were solid objects, created and quite at home in the third dimension. And while computers seldom wished for anything, Holly had very strong opinions about wanting to pick a gate in reality and stay there. He zeroed in on some coordinates and turned the ship accordingly, riding the coattails of the great wave of energy.

The mining ship exited its last dimensional pathway, and did not enter another. Out here the wave grew weaker and thinner, until it spread out and faded completely. With its final push it sent the Red Dwarf downwards, towards a blue and green planet with white, swirly clouds. Lister and his crew continued to cling desperately to one another as the mining ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, and its gravity field pulled them sharply downwards.

The _Red Dwarf_ punched through a clear, blue sky. It flew past forests of tall, deep green trees, snapping them in half like little twigs. The remaining engines whined as the ship continued its collision course. While the Dwarf had slowed down to just below light speed, it was still difficult for Holly to navigate it and prevent it from falling into ten million pieces. When a mountain came up on the radar, there was no time to evade it. The _Red Dwarf_ slammed its side into the formation of solid rock.

The impact shook the drive room. Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten screamed in unison. They lost their footing, and their limbs untangled. As Lister reached out a hand toward his companions, the Dwarf took a dive, and took a nose dive into the ground below.

Lister was knocked off-balance. He reached his hand out further, but no one could catch him. He slammed back first against a wall, briefly crying out in pain before he passed out.

Just as Lister had fallen unconscious, every single light on the Red Dwarf flickered, and then went dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it. I ended Part 1 on a cliffhanger and honestly, I'm not sorry! Did you hear the ending song play in your mind at Chapter 4's conclusion? I know I did. 
> 
> There is a lot more excitement coming in Part 2, and I've written a great deal of it already! I'm in the process of writing it, but it will take some time. In the meantime I want to thank you for reading this far!
> 
> Until next time, Dwarfers, I will see you around!


End file.
